The next morning, Amelia was up at seven. She was excited to start another new year at Hogwarts, and although she was definitely going to miss Sirius and the house, there was the Defence Association to look forward to. She was positive she was going to form new friendships, and most likely with people she would never have dreamed of getting along with on a friendship level this time last year.
When she enthusiastically got dressed and headed down to the kitchen for breakfast, she found Sirius already in there. Gosh, this is rare.
"Hey, Amelia." Her godfather smiled warmly.
"Morning," she replied back, as Ditsy and Dippey prepared her usual breakfast choice - warmly toasted bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese.
"You seem excited for school," Sirius smirked.
"This year's going to be a good year, I know it." She replied enthusiastically. "Harry's club is definitely going to be a massive hit, and even though there is the O.W.L's, I just know things will look up."
Harry came down twenty minutes later, and Dorea came down at seven fifty. "When are we meeting the Weasley's, and where?" Dorea asked as she boiled the kettle.
"We'll Floo to the station, and meet them at Platform Nine and Three Quarters." Sirius explained, "they hope to get there within plenty of time, so all your luggage gets on safely. Have you definitely packed everything?"
"Yes," Amelia confirmed - she had triply-checked last night. Harry and Dorea nodded yes's as well.
"Are you going to miss us, whilst you're here all on your own?" Harry asked.
"Oh, don't worry about me. Remus will be coming over more often, as will the other Order members. I might persuade them to just occupy the umpteen other bedrooms here permanently and literally only use Grimmauld Place for meetings." Sirius brushed off any concern. Amelia couldn't help but notice the tiniest twinkle in her godfather's eye, but maybe she was just imagining things.
After breakfast, she found herself quite bored. All her stuff was packed, and she didn't quite want to take something out in case she forgot to pack it again. It was only half past eight, they didn't have to leave until twenty-past ten.
She wandered down the corridor to Dorea's room. She knocked once before poking her head round. Dorea was scrambling to hide something, as she heard a slight crumbling of paper. "What's up?" She asked.
"Erm, nothing much." Dorea tried to sound inconspicuous.
"What's that bit of paper?" Amelia asked.
Dorea sighed, but then revealed it. "Back at Grimmauld Place, I stole this off Kreacher. It's... A letter that my uncle wrote to my grandparents."
Amelia tried to connect the dots. "You mean, a letter that Regulus wrote to Walburga and Orion?"
"Yes," Dorea admitted. "Do you wish to read it?"
Amelia nodded, and her godsister handed the lengthy bit of paper to her.
She had read it twice within the space of minutes, and still kept whistling lowly. "Regulus was forced to be a Death Eater."
"It certainly implies that, but I don't know… He could have easily willingly joined but then changed his mind." Dorea sounded unsure.
"Have you shown this to you dad?" Amelia pondered.
Dorea shook her head. "He barely speaks about his brother. When he does, he practically spits his name out like its vermin. I don't know how he would react to it…"
She understood. "Yeah, I noticed. Maybe one day though. It's nice to know that he cared about you though." Amelia always wanted a kind and loving uncle, which uncle Vernon was not. Sure, Remus was technically her uncle, as was Sirius, but they weren't blood related.
Dorea looked out the window forlornly. "He certainly had a heart, he wanted to protect me, despite knowing his brother hated him."
Amelia tried to think. "How did he die?"
"The letter mentions that he was going to carry out a crucial task, regarding some locket." Dorea said.
"What on earth is so crucial about a necklace?" Amelia sniggered. "Didn't realise Voldemort was so fashionable." They both laughed at that.
At twenty minutes past ten, they Floo'd over to King's Cross Station, and stepped out on to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It was not that busy, but more people were coming through the barrier every minute. They steered their luggage towards a pillar which was a little bit away from one of the train doors, which would give them easy access to board it.
At ten forty, the Weasley's and Hermione still hadn't arrived. Sirius was getting restless. "Come on, where are they?"
At ten forty-five, the conductor opened the doors for luggage to be let on, and at ten fifty students were allowed to board. Harry would have preferred they have a compartment entirely to themselves, but in order for that to happen the Weasley's had to hurry up.
"Maybe we should go and grab a compartment?" Dorea suggested, speaking quite loudly as the Platform was now noisily filled with Hogwarts students and parents wishing their kids farewell.
"Yeah, so we're not left sharing one." Amelia agreed, as did Harry.
"Right," Sirius turned to them, no longer staring at the barrier. "Have a great time, work hard, study hard, and good luck with the club!"
Harry grinned at his godfather. He was really going to miss him. "I'll write to you every few days!"
After a minute, they boarded the train and grabbed the first available compartment that was free. "Hermione and Ron will initially have to go to the Prefect meeting," Harry realised.
"Oh well, they'll know where to find us when they're doing the rounds." Amelia responded.
"It's a bit weird how they're so late," Dorea said, in a slightly worried tone as she kept peeking out the window she was seated next to, staring at the barrier. At ten fifty-six, they finally caught sight of the Weasley's, who were accompanied by Tonks, Mrs Weasley, Moody and Remus. Sirius rushed to help get their luggage on as they all quickly hugged and said farewell. Finally, they're here, Harry thought, we didn't leave without them.
There was a knock at their compartment door, which was a bit odd as none of the Weasley's had actually boarded yet. It was Neville. "Hey guys, can I come in?"
Harry nodded, and Neville Longbottom entered their compartment. Just as Neville seated, there was another knock at the glass door. The door opened, and a younger, pale blonde girl was looking dreamily at them, with a magazine in her hand. "Oh, is it alright if I join you all?"
Harry didn't want to be rude, but he reckoned there would still be enough room for Ginny, Ron and Hermione, as Fred and George would probably go and find Lee Jordan anyway. "Of course you can sit with us," he answered, trying to see if he recognised her, "I'm Harry."
"I know who you are, you're Harry Potter. You two are Dorea Black and Amelia Potter, right?" The girl said, looking at his sister and godsister at the end.
"Yeah, we are." Dorea replied politely, although she looked a bit awkward.
"I'm Luna Lovegood, although you can call me Loony." The girl introduced herself.
"But, that seems like an awful nickname?" Harry was startled at the girl's nickname, which sounded like it was offensive. Neville also looked quite startled at the nickname, although he was trying to mask a laugh.
"Oh, it's just what people call me." Luna replied as if it wasn't something that affected her. As she sat down next to Neville, the train tooted its horn, and it was almost time to leave. Harry soon remembered that his godfather was probably still on the platform, wanting to wave them off. Sirius stood between Remus and Mad-Eye. As the train got ready to disembark, Harry was suddenly already missing his godfather, and yet he was only a few feet away. In fact, he was also going to miss Mrs Weasley, Remus and Tonks, and even Mad-Eye. He was feeling doubly fond of everybody who was beyond the window, waving them off, as the train left at eleven on the dot. It's not the end of the world, Harry thought, as the train was no longer near the station, you'll see him again at Christmas.
He turned back to face Luna. "What year are you in?"
"Oh, I'm a fourth year Ravenclaw." The girl supplied. Ginny must know her, surely. "I heard about your godfather, and how he was declared innocent of all crimes. Didn't you also bring back Peter Pettigrew from the graveyard?"
"Yes," Harry answered, trying not to stutter as an image of Cedric's dead body was suddenly floating before his eyes. "That was the core evidence of Sirius's innocence, Pettigrew being very much alive."
Luna hummed. "I suppose the Wrackspurts helped out at the trial too."
Harry was taken aback quite a bit, as Neville was biting his tongue to suppress a laugh. "What are Wrackspurts?"
"They make your brain go all fuzzy and confused," Luna explained, "I suppose that's why Fudge said he was innocent, even though he didn't really want to, which explains all the bad press in the Daily Prophet."
Harry was quite startled at this view on the matter, but nonetheless he liked Luna Lovegood. She was certainly a bit odd, but hey, not everybody was the same.
As promised, they saw Fred and George in the corridor, and they said they were going to find Lee to plan further tricks for their final year. Ginny soon came into their compartment, whilst bidding farewell to who Harry recognised as Michael Corner.
"You won't believe the morning I've had…" Ginny went to start explaining, but then saw Luna. "Oh, hello Luna."
"Hi Ginny." Luna called out in a friendly tone, despite not even looking up from her magazine. Harry had to do a double take when he noticed she was reading it upside down.
Ginny then explained how she had been knocked unconscious that morning, when Fred and George charmed their trunks to fly down the stairs to save carrying them… only, they had barrelled into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs. There wasn't a single bruise on her, so Mrs Weasley must have mended her.
The trolley lady was soon making her way up the corridors, and Harry bought enough sweets for everybody, and kept a few for Ron and Hermione. "Thank you," Luna had said as she picked a few sweets from his hand. "This must be what having friends feels like."
Harry almost couldn't keep up with Luna Lovegood's brutal honesty. "Luna, I'd like it very much if we could be friends."
Luna's face lit up. "That would be great!" Soon enough, everyone else in the compartment also swore to be Luna's friend, although Neville said it less certainly, but it was lost on the girl.
Ron and Hermione came by about ten minutes later, and Harry internally admitted that the red Prefect badge looked a bit odd on Ron, now that he was wearing it. "Sweeties!" Was the first thing Ron said, and dived into the seat next to Ginny and started gorging on the sweets Harry got him.
"How was the Prefect's meeting, then?" Amelia asked.
"It was fine - we got a list of duties, orders, and a code of conduct. We need to patrol the train every once in a while, but we don't have to do that until twenty minutes from now." Hermione explained, and Harry realised she was giving Luna an odd look.
"Oh, Luna, these are my friends Hermione Grainger and Ron Weasley." he explained, gesturing towards the two of them.
"Nice to meet you," Luna said.
"Ew two," Ron said, through a mouth stuffed with chocolate frogs.
"Who are the other Prefects?" Dorea asked, with curiosity.
"Well, the Slytherin ones are Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, which I for the life of me do not understand, since you need to have manners and a brain to be a prefect," Hermione answered, her voice getting shrill towards the end, but she calmed down. "Ravenclaw ones are Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil, and Hufflepuff ones are Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott."
Harry was pleased for Ernie, and Hannah who he knew from Herbology. He planned on getting to know more people, if he was going to broadcast this club to the student body, and figured his own yearmates would be people enough to start with.
They talked some more, and Harry explained to both Neville and Luna that he was starting the Defence Association. Neville looked amazed, and Luna looked very interested. "I have the sign-up sheet, do you want to sign your names?"
"Yes!" Neville said enthusiastically, and Luna nodded too. He now had ten names on the sheet of paper. A very good start, he thought, although he froze a bit, as all the Heads of House were going to also advertise this club on each bulletin in the common rooms, and what if it received bad press? What if everyone thought it was a stupid idea and taunted him for it?
Their compartment door slid open, and Draco Malfoy poked his head inside. "Ah, the first annual meeting of the Loony Club."
Harry stiffened, and bit back his tongue. "Don't you have first years to be bullying, Draco?" He said in an annoyed tone.
"Professor Snape told me about your pathetic little club, Potter." Malfoy sneered. "Why on earth anybody would want to learn from you is beyond me."
"Suit yourself," Harry said, not really caring for Malfoy's opinion. Malfoy continued running his mouth, and even taunted Ron for the Prefect badge. Malfoy was suddenly cut off when he was flung backwards, and the compartment door slid shut. Yet nobody had their wands drawn. Harry almost thought that Amelia had used wandless magic again. However, Luna had her wand partly poking out of her sleeve. "Did you do that?" Harry asked, amused.
"He's quite annoying, isn't he? I figured he was clouding our minds." Luna said airily. Everyone was now dead impressed with their new acquaintance.
As the train edged closer to Hogwarts, conversation started picking up about prospects for their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. "Who do you think it'll be?" Neville asked.
"Hopefully somebody competent." Amelia commented.
"Ooh, Fred and George managed to pick up something on the Extendable Ears the other day," Ron spoke up, "apparently, Dumbledore had a lot of trouble trying to find one for this year, so Fudge introduced an Educational Decree - which gives the Ministry power to appoint a teacher if the Headmaster cannot find one. That means that some random Ministry worker could be teaching us."
"In our O.W.L year too?!" Hermione sounded horrified. "We cannot afford to be having another incompetent Defence teacher!"
"All the more appeal for my club, then." Harry said, and he realised he sounded a bit smug, but he actually prayed their teacher wasn't that good, so that it would only entice more people to join in hopes of passing Defence.
Ron and Hermione had to do a patrol of the train then, so they left them, but would probably be back in ten minutes. Besides, the train had now crossed the border into Scotland, so another hour or two and they would be at school. Harry decided to take out his fourth year Ancient Runes book and have one last read of the final chapters before classes started up. Neville squinted at the cover. "Since when are you doing Ancient Runes, Harry?"
Harry explained to Neville his situation of taking up both Runes and Arithmancy. His fellow Gryffindor looked a bit startled at the fact he only picked it up just over three weeks ago. But his friend looked very supportive. "I'm sure Professor Trelawney will be gutted you've dropped her class."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, but just think, you will get extra marks if you keep predicting my death."
After another while talking, Dorea reminded them that they were getting ever closer to school, so they wore their robes over their clothes. Hermione and Ron got back a bit late, and so hurried to change. Hermione was complaining of some third year students running up and down the corridor, tripping each other up.
As the train wheeled to a stop at Hogsmeade Train Station, Harry felt a warmth sour through his heart as he saw the familiar sight of Hogwarts castle through the slightly steamed up window. As he grabbed both his luggage and Hedwig's cage, he stepped down onto the platform, he tried to see if he could find Hagrid, but he didn't even hear the man's voice calling out for the first years to follow him. He waited for his friends to get off the train before he spoke. "There's no sign of Hagrid."
"Oh gosh, I wonder what's happened?" Amelia said, looking a tad worried.
"What if he resigned or something?" Ron voiced.
Harry didn't want to consider that possibility very much. He was brought out of his worries when they walked towards the carriages, for he could finally see what was pulling them - skeletal, bony horses.
"Why have I never seen them before?" He thought out loud.
"Seen what?" Dorea asked, looking around.
"Those animals, pulling the carriages." Surely he wasn't the only one to have noticed them?
"There's nothing there Harry…" Hermione said.
"There is so," he said, and wondered why on earth he could see them but the others couldn't. They stepped into a carriage, and were followed by Luna and Neville. "I saw them too, Harry, they're called Thestrals." Luna said lightly.
"Those bony horses?" He asked. Hermione was still looking flabbergasted.
"Yes. They can only be seen by people who have witnessed death, and you saw Cedric Diggory die, so it's only natural you're seeing them now." Luna explained, although Hermione looked quite angry, as if she was making that up.
"Why can't I see them? Me and Harry both witnessed our parents die." Amelia wondered.
"I suppose you were too young to comprehend death, even though you did witness it, you probably didn't realise what it was." Luna said, putting her copy of The Quibbler away in her bag, as she stared either at her hands or out the window. Harry thought that did make sense though, so believed Luna.
Soon enough, they were amongst the crowds of students slowly filling in to the Entrance Hall. "Alright, Harry? Have a good summer?" Harry found himself alongside Terry Boot, a fellow yearmate of his who was in Ravenclaw.
"It was great, Terry, I learned Ancient Runes and Arithmancy just three weeks ago." He decided to be honest, as he knew Terry took those classes.
Terry looked bewildered. "Oh my gosh, really? That sounds pretty tough going."
"It was hard, but I passed Runes no bother. Arithmancy though… I won't be in the class, I'll be having private lessons with Vector instead, in the evenings." He explained over the loud hustle and bustle.
Terry looked happy for him though. "Oh well, it still means you're taking it, so that can only be a good thing!" They were now in the Great Hall, so it meant they had to go to their House tables. "See you later, Harry!" Terry said farewell. He said it back, making a mental note that he could probably ask Terry for help in Runes and Arithmancy if he ever needed it, as he was very smart. Anthony Goldstein took the subjects too, he knew, so he planned to get to know him at some point too.
As they walked down Gryffindor table to their usual spot, Harry couldn't help but notice a lot of people were glaring at him, from all houses. "Why does everyone look like they want to hex me?" He whispered to his friends.
"Well, Harry, you know how the Daily Prophet thinks you're mentally challenged for saying that You-Know-Who is back?" Ron said, and Harry nodded his head, "Well, it seems that people have bought their stories."
He groaned. He wanted nothing more than for that paper to go bust. He remembered being at Grimmauld Place and reading a few of the copies, and was not the least impressed at them daring to slip his name into stories that didn't even relate to him at all, - and they even brought Amelia's name into it too. He stiffened, and moodily tucked into his dinner as the food appeared on the table. However, he glanced at the staff table, and felt his heart drop when he didn't see Rubeus Hagrid there either - instead, his place was occupied by Professor Grubbly-Plank. "He's not here."
Hermione made a worried noise. "Oh, I hope nothing terrible's happened…"
Dorea pointed something else out. "Hey, where do you think Professor Sinistra is?"
It had just occurred to Harry that indeed, the Astronomy professor was in fact another member of staff absent. They also managed to work out who the new Defence teacher was - a toad-like woman, dressed in pink. "That was one of the women at my trial!" Harry remembered suddenly. "She was sitting right next to Fudge."
The Sorting Hat commenced the start of the Sorting ceremony after all the first years made their way to the front of the hall, and this year it spoke of Hogwarts being in danger from external, deadly foes, and how we must unite or crumble. Harry thought it very foreboding. "It must have taken ideas from you, Harry," Ron remarked, "wanting to unite and all that."
The Sorting Ceremony, ever a slightly long affair, took most of the night, and he cheered whenever someone got Sorted into Gryffindor, and due to his new outlook on house unity, gave a small clap for the ones sorted into the other houses too.
Just as Dumbledore got onto talking about Quidditch tryouts, did the woman dressed in pink butt in. "Hem-hem,"
The Headmaster looked curiously at his colleague, before taking his seat as the woman made to stand. "Thank you, headmaster, for those sweet words of welcome." Harry cringed as he heard the woman speak for the first time - her voice was so high-pitched she could probably audition for an opera, and it was so girlish, as if she was talking to a room of toddlers. "It is so nice to come to a school and see so many faces smiling up at me!"
Quickly surveying the room, Harry realised that there were barely anyone smiling, and if they were they were biting back laughter. "I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all. I am sure we will be very, very good friends!"
The woman went on about how the Ministry held the importance of educating the youngsters of the magical world in high regard, and how certain old and new traditions must be upheld. Amelia had long stopped listening, and instead her and Dorea were quietly chatting. Susan Bones, over on the Hufflepuff table, was gawking spectacularly at Professor Umbridge and sniggering with Megan Jones. Both Hannah and Ernie were still listening, but their eyes seemed very interested in the enchanted ceiling and were probably only half-listening due to their statuses as Prefects.
Her speech over, Umbridge took her seat again, and Dumbledore only had a few final words to say about Quidditch tryouts before he dismissed them all to their common rooms. Hermione harshly reminded Ron that they had to show the first years to the common room, and told him off for referring to them as "midgets". Harry instead walked the other way, down to the staff table, to speak with his Head of House.
"Mr Potter, details about your club has now been put on the bulletin boards in each house's common room." McGonagall explained. "Over the next few days, people will be able to sign their house's sign-up sheets, and they will have until Friday to do so. Of course, they can still sign up after that date at any time, but it's just to see initial numbers. Have you thought of a day where you're going to hold your first session?"
He had. "I was thinking of meeting with the Senior group first, as they're probably going to take the most time getting used to mingling with other people, and I was thinking on Saturday evening? The Junior group, I was thinking next Monday evening."
McGonagall nodded. He noticed that Professor Flitwick was still at the table. "Professor Flitwick here would also like to have a role in this group, Mr Potter."
"Oh?" Harry was pleasantly surprised. Surely endorsement from a teacher makes it sound good...
"Yes, as you know I am a duelling champion. I was thinking of also attending your sessions, Mr Potter. It is inevitable that mistakes can be made, so if any member gets injured, I will be able to heal them." His Charms professor explained.
"Great!" Harry hadn't actually thought of that.
When Harry eventually got up to the common room, Hermione was in animated conversation with Ron, Amelia and Dorea. "What did you think of Professor Umbridge's speech, Harry?" Hermione asked him.
"Erm, it was a lot of waffling, to be honest." He admitted as he sat down.
"Well, if you cared to listen, you would realise that there was actually some implied information." Hermione replied shrilly.
"And what would that be?" He asked, as he noticed that Seamus was whispering to Dean.
"The Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts." Hermione supplied.
Dorea did actually think Hermione was right, as it was very clear that Fudge put Umbridge in the position of a teacher to spy. Fudge had a great dislike towards Dumbledore, and so would want to quell down anything he thought out of order.
Her eyes wandered the common room, and she noticed that a few people had taken notice of the bulletin board - where, displayed eye-catchingly, was details of Harry's club.
"Woah, Harry, you're going to be running a Defence club?!" Colin Creevey gasped with admiration, which caused the whole Gryffindor common room to stare over at them.
Harry tried to hide his blush. "Yeah, we need to learn how to defend ourselves, now-"
"-Oh here we go, 'now that You-Know-Who's back'." Seamus cut in quite savagely in a voice imitating Harry's which caused Fay Dunbar and her friend to giggle. Dean was also sat with them, but he neither smiled nor laughed, clearly stuck between loyalty to two friends.
Dorea glanced at her godbrother, who was quite clearly trying to calm himself down. Amelia looked ready to jump to her twin brother's defence at any given moment. "Why do you say that, Seamus?" Harry asked simply, although he was so close to sounding defensive.
"Hmm, well, lets see," Seamus stood up, "My mam didn't want me returning to Hogwarts this year, as The Daily Prophet says that both you and Dumbledore have lost their marbles, what with both of you saying that You-Know-Who is somehow alive, and don't even get me started on Cedric Diggory's death, and how you brought that Pettigrew man back but couldn't save your teammate. That's dodgy." The boy said venomously.
"Well, why don't you just stick to reading the Daily Prophet then, and believe Rita Skeeter like your insipid mother does, and it'll tell you everything you need to know." Harry bit back. Dorea didn't think this a good start to the school year.
Seamus gasped. "Don't ye dare talk about my mother like that!"
"I'll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar!" Harry almost snarled.
"I'm not sharing a dormitory with you, no, you've lost your wits." Seamus jabbed a finger in their direction.
Ron finally stood up. "That's out of order, Seamus."
"Oh-ho, I'm the one that's out of order?! Well, take a look at your own little circle!" Seamus retorted, this time with his voice raised. Lavender and Pavarti looked like they were unsure who's side to take.
"Unfortunately for you, mate, I'm a prefect!" Ron said, gesturing to himself, and sounded confident with his new level of authority. "Do you want to get detention, Seamus? No? Then watch your tone!"
Seamus Finnigan, who almost looked like steam was going to come out of his ears any minute, made a noise of contempt before wheeling on his heels up to the boys dormitory, looking vengeful and muttering curse words. The boy's dorm is going to be fun tonight, Dorea thought, sarcastically, they'll be walking on eggshells around Seamus now.
The girls dorm was only slightly better. Lavender declared, as they were unpacking, that Harry was attention seeking. Parvati interestingly stayed quiet. Hermione was having none of that. "Lavender, how long have you known Harry?"
Lavender Brown looked startled, but held her ground, "Five years today."
"In those five years, has he ever lied to any of us about anything?" Hermione almost snapped, but her tone was demanding.
"W-well, not off the top of my head-"
"-Exactly!" Hermione cut in. "So why on earth would he choose now of all times to lie about what happened the night of the Third Task, hmm? Who else would have killed Cedric, if not Pettigrew, acting on commands of the dark lord?"
Lavender looked stumped, as she was trying to wrack her brian, "But the Prophet-"
"-Is a load of bollocks." Amelia finished her sentence. "Do you honestly believe a single word that comes out of Rita Skeeter's mouth?"
Lavender looked affronted, as if Amelia had just insulted a great public figure. "S-she's the editor-"
"-Of a so-called newspaper, yet its stories are that false and dubious they belong in a gossip magazine." Dorea added her voice to the debate. Parvati still looked on the fence - she was clearly listening to them, but just pretending to straighten a non-existent crease out of her Weird Sisters poster.
Lavender let out a rather fierce growl. "B-but why is it, then, that Dumbledore got removed from his seat on the Wizengamot, and the International Confederacy of Wizards?" She countered, whipping around to face them, her arms crossed, and almost looking as vengeful as Seamus.
"It's a long story, but basically, Fudge is terrified of Dumbledore." Dorea supplied.
Lavender laughed a bit. "What? That's a pathetic excuse."
Dorea swallowed her anger, and tried to educate Lavender instead of arguing with her. "He's under the impression that Dumbledore wants to take over his position as Minister."
Lavender had gone a bit quiet, but she did speak. "Why?"
"Because there is - well, there was, - great public support for Dumbledore. Way more support than there is for Fudge." She continued.
Lavender Brown was almost on the same page as her. "Well, I suppose that does make sense," Dorea almost sighed with relief, until the girl's tone changed again, "but there are still flaws in Harry's story."
Amelia muttered some choice words, and Hermione whipped round again. "Like what, Lav?" she demanded.
"The Tri-Wizard Tournament was very high security, to make sure nothing went wrong, so why is it that the cup took both Harry and Cedric to a stupid graveyard?" She said hotly.
Dorea almost facepalmed. Clearly, it was going to take some time to convince Lavender alone, and there were still hundreds of students probably that held the same opinion as her. "Because who we thought was Professor Moody, but was actually Barty Crouch Junior, enchanted the cup to take them there in the first place!" Amelia answered, in a voice that was teetering on being superbly annoyed.
Lavender had had enough, plainly. "I'm going to bed, goodnight." Although her tone of voice implied that she wanted them to have a crap night's sleep. She yanked the curtains around her four-poster bed and they didn't hear another sound from her.
Parvati did look sympathetic, but didn't know who to believe. "I'm sure she'll come round," she said, in a voice above a mutter. It wasn't long before she was also shutting the curtains around her own bed and changing into pyjamas.
The three remaining inhabitants of the Gryffindor fifth year girls dorm all sighed, clearly frustrated that Lavender was blind to the truth. Hermione's nostrils were still flared, and she was whispering her anger off to them as she all but slammed her trunk shut.
With classes starting up tomorrow, Dorea knew that Harry would be subjected to a few sneers and possibly even angry remarks, but she decided that she would defend him every time, as would their other friends. Besides, it would only be so long until Voldemort moved out into the open, so people would see the light.
She hoped.